National Poetry Month is coming up in April and earlier this month Kishwaukee College held an interactive poetry workshop called, “So You Wanna Be a Slam Poet.” Some people may be familiar with spoken word poetry or may have attended a poetry reading. Bear Wolf is the adjunct professor of English at Kishwaukee College. He said there is a slight difference between spoken word and slam poetry. “The slam is the competitive part. You have a 3-minute time limit. You get two rounds. Your points are added up to see if you can get to the final round.” Wolf said these points are determined by random judges and they judge on a scale of one-to-10. Matt Weibel is the assistant professor of communication at the college. He said people should be authentic when they are performing slam poetry. “We don’t need another Taylor Mali; we don’t need another Bear Wolf. We need a you. We need you to be your own poet, to have your own style, your own flair.” Taylor Mali’s poem, “What Teachers Make” was one of

We are living through historic times: How are you documenting them? Art? Poetry? Photos? Music? We’d love to see what you’ve been creating during our stay-at-home order. Send us your original poems, essays, and photos! Take pictures of your painting, drawing, sculpture, or whatever visual medium you’re working in. Send us a link to your performance of an original song. We’ll share them on our website. Email your submissions to WNIJpix@niu.edu If you have a statement about your work you’d like to include, send it along. Give us your name and the city or town where you live. We’d like our virtual talent show to represent how our community is dealing with the COVID-19 crisis. It’s not a contest or a place for critiques: It’s a place to show off your talent and see what everyone else has been up to these past few challenging months. Work from kids is welcome, too! A few simple rules: The work must be your own. No cover songs, no memes ripped from Facebook, no plagiarizing! Shorter is good!

Around 60% of DeKalb students qualify as low-income, according to the Illinois Report Card . That means they also qualify for reduced or free meals. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, schools scrambled to keep providing food for students who rely on their district for much more than education. Pansy Oderio is DeKalb’s food services director. Her team serves around 700 meals a day. They have 10 locations either at schools or mobile sites in the community. She says it’s mostly a combination of fruit, cereal, sandwiches and milk, but they try to offer more variety when they can. The program is also largely run by dozens of volunteers. “It's community members. It's teachers, our administration, they all can sign up and pick time slots to help distribute the meals,” she said. Soon they’ll also be offering boxes with a week’s worth of meals at DeKalb High School. Oderio says that’ll double the number of meals they give out. They’re also exploring ways to get more pre-cooked options for

Hospitals, nursing homes, and doctors' offices take care of us and our loved ones, but who is taking care of them? Melissa Butts has one answer. She is the co-chair of the grassroots organization Taking Care of Our Caretakers - DeKalb County. TCOCDKC has provided meals, treats, and random acts of kindess throughout the community since March. Butts says many people are involved and though she is humbled by the response, she is not surprised. "Growing up here, I know what the community can do when it pulls together," Butts said, "and I've never been more 'proudly DeKalb' in my life." Butts talked about the impact her organization has made in less than two months. "We have fed 5,300 meals or treats. We have raised $28,350." She added, "We've already spent $26,000 of that, which is awesome -- it just went back into the community." Butts says they have supported 40 restaurants and bakeries and that all of them are in DeKalb County. Butts says after they raise funds from the community, they

Families across Illinois have had to adapt to e-learning due to the stay-at-home order. But with the school year winding down, they’ll soon have to adapt to another new normal -- the lack of summer activities. A Rockford organization has made the decision to postpone its summer camp programs until 2021. The Rockford Area Arts Council has summer art programs for children of all ages. There’s ArtsPlace, ArtsPlace II and RAAC camp. Mary McNamara Bernsten is the executive director. She said although the programs are postponed, families will still have options. “We are now working collaboratively with New Genres Art Space and the United Way of Rock River Valley to provide Art Space instruction, mentorship and skill-building while practicing safe social distancing,” she said. She said children in the programs will also wear personal protective equipment, or PPE. McNamara Bernsten said New Genres Art Space uses cutting edge technology which allows them to work with two groups of six children

IT’S becoming a real bore that our main sporting authorities, particularly the Scottish Football Association, the Scottish Professional Football League and the Scottish Rugby Union, continue to get in a fankle over the way to end the 2019-20 season.

WET WET WET singer Marti Pellow has performed a song in tribute to carers who are raising money for personal protection equipment (PPE) in his hometown of Clydebank.

Channel 4 have launched a search for a couple who have cancelled their wedding due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Many of us have flocked to our TVs to binge-watch a range of shows during the lockdown.

BONFIRES so hot they cracked tenement windows. Jiving with the GIs in George Square. Singing and dancing with joy, knowing that finally, the war was over….

COMEDIAN Kerry Bridges has shown his support for the national Clap for Carers event.

Pair are found out

GLASGOW CLAN chief operating officer Gareth Chalmers has admitted that the team’s recent run of form has been hugely frustrating, and he admits that he has never seen a team as badly hit by from illness and injury as his side have been in recent weeks.

GLASGOW CLAN head coach Zack Fitzgerald admits his side’s win over Fife Flyers on Sunday evening was “massive” and that it was just what his players needed.

MAY is normally a busy month behind the scenes for Gareth Chalmers and the ongoing uncertainty around sport hasn’t changed that a huge amount.

RANGERS claim that the SPFL failed to inform its members of a potential £10million liability and “substantial problems” with league reconstruction before asking clubs to vote to conclude the 2019/20 campaign.

I DIDN’T think I’d be writing again this week about Glasgow City Council’s administration of Coronavirus Business Support Grant funding but the poor progress made over the past seven days has compelled me to continue to shine a spotlight on this issue.

The city of Colorado Springs has launched a digital survey and open house highlighting community response and future plans for three historic downtown parks.

Last week, researchers at UCSF published a study showing that a ban on sugary drinks at work has significant positive health effects, from a smaller waist size to improved insulin resistance to lower cholesterol.

PG&E's decision to cut power to hundreds of thousands of customers threw the Bay Area into disarray. Yet despite the blackouts, fires still raged, with people evacuating and in some cases losing homes.

On tonight's show host Joseph Pace will examine the flaws in our legal system that have contributed to the mass incarceration of Americans, particularly impoverished Americans. The discussion will include San Mateo DA Steve Wagstaffe and lawyer Alec Karakatsanis, author of Usual Cruelty: The Complicity of Lawyers in the Criminal Injustice System, whose ideas often challenge our assumptions about justice, poverty, and opportunity in our country. Guests: Steve Wagstaffe, District Attorney of San Mateo County. Alec Karakatsanis, Lawyer and Author of Usual Cruelty, The Complicity of Lawyers in the Criminal Injustice System. You can join Alec for a lunch and talk about his book on Thursday, Dec 5 from 12:30-1:30 in the Google Community Space (188 Embarcadero). Sponsored by Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights . RSVP to Producer: Wendy Holcombe

On this edition of Your Call, we’ll talk about farmworkers and meat processing plant workers on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis.

On this edition of Your Call, we’ll speak with Dr. Ann López , executive director of the Center for Farmworker Families about how California's farmworkers are still unprotected, months after the COVID-19 crisis began.

On this edition of Your Call, we're getting an update on the COVID crisis in meatpacking plants. At least 31 meat processing plants owned by Smithfield, JBS and Tyson Foods have had coronavirus outbreaks.

On this edition of Your Call, we’ll hear from janitors on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic. They have expressed fear over the lack of PPE, hazard pay and paid sick leave, and the heavy use of chemicals in cleaning supplies.

On this edition of Your Call, we’re speaking with award-winning health journalist Trudy Lieberman about the current state of US health coverage since the Affordable Care Act passed 10 years ago.

WOULD you still celebrate a cup final win for your team if you knew for absolute certain the game had been rigged?

THE SPFL were tonight criticised for giving Scotland’s clubs hope that league reconstruction was a possibility in their controversial end-of-season resolution.

On this week's Open Air, a talk (by phone) about what the cancellation of virtually all performing arts venues have on various artists, including a talk with conductor Martin West about the San Francisco Ballet, with Bill English, co-founder of San Francisco Playhouse, and with freelance musicians Mads Tolling and Matt Szemela. Plus regular contributor Peter Robinson shares possible home and outdoor activities during "shelter in place". RESOURCES and diversions: The San Francisco Symphony's award winning "Keeping Score" video series The Metropolitan Opera streaming archive The Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall From our friends at KQED: "Emergency Funds for Freelancers, Creatives..." The Actors' Fund The Santa Cruz Symphony Musician Relief Fund Listen to the March 19, 2020 broadcast of Open Air with David Latulippe anytime!

Zakary Pashak is a rare breed. His company, Detroit Bikes, is one of the very few American bicycle makers. Most bikes come from China. At times, Pashak endured ridicule at trade shows. "I'd get kind of surly bike mechanics coming up and telling me that my products stunk. There's definitely a fair bit of attitude in my industry," he says. But last September, the industry's tune abruptly changed. The first round of U.S. tariffs, or import taxes, upped the cost of Chinese-made bikes by 10%, and companies saw Detroit Bikes as a potential partner. "All of a sudden I felt like the belle of the ball or something," Pashak says. Now a new round of tariffs set at 25% is hitting imports from China. Like many other American companies, Detroit Bikes is poring over the 194-page list of imported Chinese goods subject to the levies. Companies like Detroit Bikes rely on those goods, and now they face choices that will ultimately determine the prices consumers will pay. Pashak started the company when

Editor's note: This is an updated version of a story that was published on Nov. 9, 2018. The United States has the 28th-highest rate of deaths from gun violence in the world: 4.43 deaths per 100,000 people in 2017 — far greater than what is seen in other wealthy countries. On a state-by-state calculation, the rates can be even higher. In the District of Columbia, the rate is 16.34 per 100,000 — the highest in the United States. In Louisiana, the rate is 10.68 per 100,000. In Texas and Ohio — the scene of two mass shootings at the beginning of August — the rates are close to the national average: 4.74 per 100,000 in Texas and 4.60 in Ohio. And the national rate of gun violence in the U.S. is higher than in many low-income countries. Those findings are part of the latest version of an annual report on gun violence from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation , which tracks lives lost in every country, in every year, by every possible cause of death. The

The Census Bureau says it is continuing the gradual relaunch of limited field operations for the 2020 census next week in nine states where the coronavirus pandemic forced the hand-delivery of paper forms in rural areas to be suspended in mid-March. On May 13, some local census offices in Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington are scheduled to restart that fieldwork, according to an updated schedule the bureau published on its website Friday. All workers are expected to be trained in CDC guidance in preventing the spread of COVID-19, and besides a new reusable face mask for every 10 days worked and a pair of gloves for each work day, the bureau has ordered 2 ounces of hand sanitizer for each census worker conducting field operations, the bureau tells NPR in an email. The announcement means more households that receive their mail at post office boxes or drop points are expected to find paper questionnaires left outside their

As of Friday in Texas, you can go to a tanning salon. In Indiana, houses of worship are being allowed to open with no cap on attendance. Places like Pennsylvania are taking a more cautious approach, only starting to ease restrictions in some counties based on the number of COVID-19 cases. By Monday, at least 31 states will have partially reopened after seven weeks of restrictions. The moves come as President Trump pushes for the country to get back to work despite public health experts warning that it's too soon. "The early lesson that was learned, really, we learned from the island of Hokkaido in Japan, where they did a really good job of controlling the initial phase of the outbreak," said Bob Bednarczyk, assistant professor of global health and epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in Atlanta. Because of that success, many of the restrictions on the island were lifted. But cases and deaths surged in a second wave of infections. Twenty-six days later

What does it mean to find a sense of self in work? The new film " Working Man " explores this question through a group of laid off factory workers as they fight for the reopening of their fictional factory -- the last of its kind in the small Midwestern city where they live.

"A lot of young girls are often taught to sort of stay quiet or to put other people's needs before ourselves... And if we are to speak up or to stand up for ourselves it could be taken as being bossy or the other b word." - Emily Abad, Director of Programs at The Mosaic Project, an experiential education program addressing issues of diversity, empathy, and conflict resolution. On this episode of “Inflection Point” host Lauren Schiller talks with Emily Abad about how to find that mix of empathy and assertiveness for all genders.

What happens when teachers are given the freedom to inspire a lifelong love of learning?

This is Audiograph — the Bay Area’s sonic signature. Each week, we’ll play you a sound recorded somewhere in the Bay Area. Your job? Listen to the sound in the player above, figure out where it was recorded and what it is, then call to let us know. If you think you can identify this Audiograph sound of the week, call 415-264-7106. Also, tell us where to record next. We’ll give away a KALW t-shirt every week to one lucky caller. We will announce the winner of this week's sound on Thursday during the 5 p.m. broadcast of Crosscurrents . This auditory guessing game is part of our project, Audiograph, a crowd-sourced collaborative radio project mapping the sonic signature of each of the Bay Area’s nine counties. By using the sounds of voices, nature, industry, and music, Audiograph tells the story of where you live, and the people who live there with you.

This is Audiograph — the Bay Area’s sonic signature. Each week, we’ll play you a sound recorded somewhere in the Bay Area. Your job? Listen to the sound in the player above, figure out where it was recorded and what it is, then call to let us know. If you think you can identify this Audiograph sound of the week, call 415-264-7106. Also, tell us where to record next. We’ll give away a KALW t-shirt every week to one lucky caller. We will announce the winner of this week's sound on Thursday during the 5 p.m. broadcast of Crosscurrents . This auditory guessing game is part of our project, Audiograph, a crowd-sourced collaborative radio project mapping the sonic signature of each of the Bay Area’s nine counties. By using the sounds of voices, nature, industry, and music, Audiograph tells the story of where you live, and the people who live there with you.

This is Audiograph — the Bay Area’s sonic signature. We’ll play you a sound recorded somewhere in the Bay Area. Your job? Listen to the sound in the player above, figure out where it was recorded and what it is, then call to let us know. If you think you can identify this Audiograph sound of the week, call 415-264-7106. Also, tell us where to record next. We’ll give away a KALW t-shirt every week to one lucky caller. We will announce the winner of this week's sound on Thursday during the 5 p.m. broadcast of Crosscurrents . This auditory guessing game is part of our project, Audiograph, a crowd-sourced collaborative radio project mapping the sonic signature of each of the Bay Area’s nine counties. By using the sounds of voices, nature, industry, and music, Audiograph tells the story of where you live, and the people who live there with you.

The Census Bureau says it is continuing the gradual relaunch of limited field operations for the 2020 census next week in nine states where the coronavirus pandemic forced the hand-delivery of paper forms in rural areas to be suspended in mid-March. On May 13, some local census offices in Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington are scheduled to restart that fieldwork, according to an updated schedule the bureau published on its website Friday. All workers are expected to be trained in CDC guidance in preventing the spread of COVID-19, and besides a new reusable face mask for every 10 days worked and a pair of gloves for each work day, the bureau has ordered 2 ounces of hand sanitizer for each census worker conducting field operations, the bureau tells NPR in an email. The announcement means more households that receive their mail at post office boxes or drop points are expected to find paper questionnaires left outside their

As of Friday in Texas, you can go to a tanning salon. In Indiana, houses of worship are being allowed to open with no cap on attendance. Places like Pennsylvania are taking a more cautious approach, only starting to ease restrictions in some counties based on the number of COVID-19 cases. By Monday, at least 31 states will have partially reopened after seven weeks of restrictions. The moves come as President Trump pushes for the country to get back to work despite public health experts warning that it's too soon. "The early lesson that was learned, really, we learned from the island of Hokkaido in Japan, where they did a really good job of controlling the initial phase of the outbreak," said Bob Bednarczyk, assistant professor of global health and epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in Atlanta. Because of that success, many of the restrictions on the island were lifted. But cases and deaths surged in a second wave of infections. Twenty-six days later

After two weeks of hospitalization, Larry Potter became the first Iowan diagnosed with COVID-19 to be released from Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids after spending time on a ventilator.

Many childcare centers across the state have been forced to shut their doors because of COVID-19. For those who are still open, declining enrollment numbers, staff layoffs and difficulties in acquiring and affording necessary supplies has left providers facing tough decisions about the future of their childcare businesses, just as some Iowans begin returning to work.

The NCAA has made it clear that unless college campuses are open to the entire student body in the fall, there are no plans to risk the health of student-athletes for the sake of sports. 

Feed hits and monthly downloads are two podcast stats the may confuse or mislead podcasters. Here's why you should never rely on these meaningless numbers.

The network is retiring but the shows are continuing. Here's more information.

Podcasters need a WordPress theme designed with features and flexibility to support podcasting. Here's why I think SecondLine Themes are your new best choice!

On December 10, 2019, Apple Podcasts surpassed 800,000 valid podcasts! Here's some more information and statistics on the podcast industry, with data from My Podcast Reviews.

On Friday, April 17, 2020, Apple Podcasts surpassed 1 million valid podcasts in their catalog. So have we reached “peak podcast”? Is it too late to start a podcast? Will your podcast only be lost in the sea of over 1 million other podcasts? Short answer: NO! Here's why. 1. Saturation is a matter of...

Some police departments are embracing a set of tactics designed to reduce the use of force – and prevent police shootings. Rather than rushing in aggressively, officers back off, wait out people in crisis and use words instead of weapons.

But this training isn’t required in most states. Reveal teams up with APM Reports and finds that most cops spend a lot more time training to shoot their guns than learning how to avoid firing them.

Head over to revealnews.org for more of our reporting.

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